There are many things that can trigger a memory: a song, a smell, a picture...My memory is often strangely triggered by passages from books. For example, I am watching The Importance of Being Earnest right now. There's a part where little Cecily reads to "Ernest" from her journal: "Today, I broke off my engagement with Ernest. I feel it is better to do so. The weather continues charming." For some reason, this brought back the memory of the last time I read this passage. I was sitting on a bus, wrapped up in about seven layers, riding to work. The bus had just pulled into the grocery store parking lot, and we sat for a while because the route was running a little early, so, wedged between the cold glass window and a tiny Asian girl dressed in a panda bear-shaped hat, I continued to read Oscar Wilde's comedy and wait to arrive at my destination.
Strange, huh?
It also works in reverse for me--I can go to a location and remember what I was reading (or listening to) at the time. For example, on the route between my parents' house in Kingsport, TN, and the Barnes and Noble in Johnson City, TN, there is a big curve I used to drive around to get from one highway to the next. Every time I have driven there, I have thought of a passage in Chuck Palahniuk's Rant. I was listening to the book on audio, and when I drove over that curve, I listened to the passage about party crashing, where drivers decorate their cars and crash into each other.
It's funny when and where it happens. It's almost like a movie, where the character is going on about his day, and suddenly, his mind drifts off to another time and place. He stays there for a little while until another character comes around and either slaps him in the face or throws water on him and says, "Hey! Wake up!"
I guess it's time for me to wake up.
